Sheffield Lake reaches agreement with developer to move forward with project on Shoreway site

SHEFFIELD LAKE – Plans for the Sheffield Lake Town Center have moved a step closer to reality with word that the city has reached an agreement with a developer for the project.

Mayor John Piskura said he will ask City Council to approve legislation during a special meeting at 7 p.m. Monday that officially approves a memorandum of understanding between the city and North Coast Capital Partners LLC.

The Lakewood real estate management and development firm will work with current and future tenants for the planned 21-acre site offering 170,000 square feet of retail space in eight buildings.

Piskura said the memorandum of understanding acts as a pre-development agreement that will be followed by a permanent contract.

“The letter of understanding clarifies what the city wants to do, what our intentions are with the property and what the developer’s intentions are over the next 12 months,” he said.

A more comprehensive contractual agreement would be negotiated between the city and the Lakewood-based developer before construction begins on new buildings.

Thomas A. Barrett, managing member for North Coast Capital Partners, said preliminary plans submitted to the city call for “a mix of well-known” retail stores, offices, restaurants and medical facilities.

He declined to name prospective tenants.

Barrett said the new center also will highlight the green energy to be used and green spaces will be incorporated as part of the project.

“It should prove to be a valuable asset to the community and the region at large,” Barrett said.

The memorandum of understanding also calls for the city to give the Lakewood firm an option to buy all of the land, buildings and existing leases for $3.5 million.

Plans for the center are being developed by Larsen Architects of Lakewood.

North Coast Capital Partners owns and manages more than 350 apartment complexes across Northeast Ohio.

Built in 1958 as the Shoreway Shopping Center, the retail strip on Lake Road prospered for years before falling into gradual decline as tenants left and thriving businesses became harder and harder to sustain in the center.

The city purchased the shopping center in 2008 and quickly moved to secure a five-year lease with Apples supermarket as a replacement for the Giant Eagle store that vacated the center, leaving the city without a major food retailer.

Plans call for the old shopping center’s demolished buildings to be replaced with eco-friendly buildings powered by green energy sources offering geothermal heating, solar panels and wind turbines. A pair of 45-foot-tall wind turbines installed on Lake Road in June is expected to power the re-developed shopping center’s lights.